And Suzanne Quick has been forced to confront the reality that it might have been something in her environment and not just genetics or bad luck that was the cause.

She is one of the new cases to have emerged following a Newcastle Herald investigation into a potential cancer cluster on Cabbage Tree Road in Williamtown.

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The investigation identified 39 people who had battled cancer over 15 years, after living or spending significant amounts of time on a five-kilometre stretch of the road.

Last month, the number was described by politicians as mind-boggling. The toll has risen significantly since.

For years, water brimming with toxic chemicals from the RAAF base has been flooding properties along Cabbage Tree Road. At the eastern end, where pollution levels are the highest, sits the abandoned Williamtown Public School.

Ms Quick, of Elermore Vale, worked there as a teachers aid between 1997 and 2007. She remembers spending a lot of time out in the playground.

But the school didnt cross her mind when she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in April.

Just coming to terms with the diagnosis was difficult enough for the 50-year-old, who had no family history of the disease.

I was happy for people to know, but I couldnt actually say the words, I would just cry, she said.

Id wake up every morning thinking it was a bad dream and then Id feel my head and Ive got no hair.

During chemotherapy, oncologists discovered the cancer had spread to Ms Quicks bone marrow, eating away at her hip and shoulder.

She must now have both the joints replaced before she can undergo the bone marrow transplant she is counting on for a cure.

Im in remission but the cancer is very aggressive, Ms Quick said. If they dont do the transplant theres a big possibility it will come back.

Doctors were hopeful she would have the transplant this year, but it now looks as though it might have to be postponed to 2018.

Different things have gone wrong a few times, she said. Its a long road ahead.

Ms Quicks daughter, Jessie, has quit her job in Sydney as a speech pathologist to care for her mother.

Its been a source of great comfort for Ms Quick, who is too ill to drive. She has to attend an endless succession of medical appointments, but otherwise cant leave the house.

Ive got to stay away from everyone because my immune system is so low. Its so isolating. Thats the worst part of the whole thing.